RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE AND WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN NIGERIAN ISLAM</

There has been, in the recent years, an explosion of interest and global focus on issues pertaining to women and gender discourse with emphasis on the status, position, and role of women from the perspectives of pure academics and politics as well as non-governmental organizations. The interest and focus which bother on the challenge of cultural and religious definitions and stereotypes of gender roles and biological essentiality, all having their basis on the expression of most patriarchal communities. Literatures burgeoned on the focus on women particularly from the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, literature and literary studies, politics, philosophy, music, agriculture, religion, etc. Perhaps, more than any other disciplines, religion appears to be in the forefront of the attacks and responses on the growing interest on women and gender studies (See Bibliographical References). Special journals that are devoted to gender and women studies include Feminist Studies, Gender and Society, The Muslim Woman, Jenda, while some produce special issues on women (Studia Missionalia 1991).

Nigeria, one of the most populous African countries, has the highest Muslim percentage of her population. Scholars of religion, particularly church historians and African Christian theologians have done significant studies and writings on women Christian religious leaders, most importantly among the Evangelicals, Pentecostals and Charismatics (Arulefela 1994, Bateye 2001). It is regrettably that although there is a significant presence of Muslim women in Nigerian Islam, no serious academic focus has been given to their significance and relevance on Nigerian religious community. While it is true that early Islamic treatment on the one side, and African cultural patriarchal sentiment on the other, are still influential to the religious sensibilities of Muslim women in Nigeria, there is a strong evidence that Muslim women are making more than the domestic and aesthetic impact on, not only the Muslim religious life, but also the society where such women operate.

This paper will briefly examine the status of women in early Islam. It will focuses on the Alhaja Sheidat Mujidat Adeoye, the founder and leader Fadillullah Muslim Mission, Osogbo, a movement that was born out of a religious experience which is considered to be strange in Islamic religion. This paper discusses nature and distinctive religious experience of Alhaja Adeoye and the consequence of her religious experience in the founding of the Fadilullah Muslim Mission, Osogbo. It investigates her activities and practices, such as praying and fasting, prophesy and healing, and therapeutic rituals; her acceptance within the Muslim religious and Yoruba cultural patriarchal community, and public responses in religio-cultural and inter-religious contexts. The paper assesses the overall relevance of the movement founded by Alhaja Adeoye as an Islamic group on her clients. The collection and analysis of the data for the study are done through a multi-disciplinary approach of anthropology, phenomenology and hermeneutics. The importance of our study Sheidat Mujidat Adeoye and the movement she is leading lies in the tremendous and imposing prominence and huge patronage, both by the people of Osogbo and the numerous visitors who come from other parts of Nigeria.

Women in Early Islam

Montgomery Watt looked at the position of women in the earliest Islam and pointed to the fact that the culture of the Arabic community from where Islam emerged had no regard for women as anthropological materials still reveal. But that “the position of women was improved at various points by Muhammad and the new religion he proclaimed” (Watt 1991: 161). For instance, the pre-Islamic Arabia had a marital arrangement which was associated with the social system that may be described as limited and unlimited polyandry.[1] However, with the emergence of Islam, this situation essentially changed as a woman was to have sexual relations with only one man at a time; and divorce or change of partner was not encouraged. It is also important to note that although polygamy was allowed, it would be acceptable on the condition that the husband would act justly towards several wives, otherwise, only one wife was recommended (Qur’an 4: 3). In this manner and by implication, women were seen as subservient in matters of being inherited, or serving as booties of the war, hence they needed to be treated justly and fairly.

It is noteworthy that the Qur’an enjoins the equality of men and women. It is interesting to note that apart from the fact that Islam recognises Āisha[2] to have “played an important part in the early years of Islam” (Bowker 1997: 1043), Prophet Muhammad gave a deep honour to women and mothers as he was noted to have answered when asked a question on “whom one should most honour, he replied three times, ‘Your mother’, and only then added, ‘Your father’” (Ibid.). Thus, and generally speaking as Hossein Nasr submitted that “the role of women is seen as being more in the preservation of the family and upbringing of children” (Nasr 1995: 461).

It may be wrong to assert a uniformity of the status and role of Muslim women in Nigeria as a whole. The reason is obvious. The cultures and religious worldviews of the southern and northern Nigeria are distinct. Thus, the status and role of women in the two regions need to be seen and viewed differently. Our attempt here is not a detailed treatment of the subject, but a cursory look at the religious atmospheres.

Islam had contact with Hausaland about the eleventh century but gained prominence in the fifteenth century. There, as Ayesha Imam noted, “Islamic influence and political power came to be strongly associated” (Imam 1994: 124). As Islam gained prominence among the ruling groups and rich merchants, the practice of seclusion of women became a status symbol and women’s formal roles began to lack recognition. During the colonial period, seclusion was used as a means of resistance, most especially against the British colonial authority’s heavy taxation. Thus, there was an adaptation of local customs of the Bori into Islam to produce a different kind of identity which was designated Hausa-cum-Islamic identity. The point being made here is that women occupy a somewhat hidden status and roles. In the 1980s, as Muslim women began to recognise the effect of seclusion on their political and social rights, they conceived the idea of forming themselves into groups. A branch of such groups, which was probably formed outside the northern region, was formed in one of the States of Northern Nigeria. This group is the Federation of Muslim Women Association of Nigeria (FOMWAN) which tries to “redefine Islamic discourses on women while maintaining legitimacy with existing religious and state authorities” (Imam 1997: 124). Commentators and writers on Muslim women have always emphasised, from the Qur’an and the hadith, issues relating only to marital relations and injunctions on women. Their roles and status in religious administration and leadership were usually seen more as a subjective vessel, to both human and divine ordinances.

Islamic Movements and Societies, and Muslim Women in Osogbo

The introduction and growth of Islam in Osogbo has been documented (Ogungbile 1998, 2003b). Islam was introduced to Osogbo in the 1820s but made had its permanent footing in the 1850s during the reign of Oba Ataoja of Osogbo, Oladejobi Oladele, Matanmi the First (1854-1864). However, the main Islamic movements did not flourish in Osogbo until the second quarter of the 1900s. Traditional Islamic movements which spread across the most notable communities in Nigeria could be generally classified into four categories: (a) conservative movements, (b) liberal movements, (c) liberation movements, and (d) mystical movements. These classifications are based, not strictly on the beliefs, tenets and pillars of Islamic faith, but primarily on the practices of these movements in relation to those of what could be termed the ‘orthodox’ Islam. The other factor is their pragmatic approaches and reactions to contemporary social realities, situations and issues. This factor may include attitudes to socialites, cultural milieu in which Islam finds itself, gender biases, age groupings, educational interests, and theological emphases and rediscoveries. Among the ‘conservatives’ are the Lánasè Islam and Bámidélé Islam. The Ahmadiyyah, Nawair-Ud-Deen and the Ansar-Ud-Deen movements are in the ‘liberal’ group. The Isabat-Ul-Deen movement is an example of the ‘liberation’ movements while the ‘mystic’ movements may run across those movements or include individual devotion to spiritual experiences. It should be mentioned that the most prominent Muslim groups in Òsogbo fall within the ‘liberal’ movement. This liberality could be attributed to the general Yorùbá world view which places emphasis on human communality and blood relationship. This relationship is considered stronger than religious differentiation. Liberal movements also include those groups who are interested not in the renewal of Islam but in its revival and revitalisation.

It is to be noted that most known Islamic movements, in the strict sense of being religious movements, in Osogbo as in other parts of Nigeria were founded and led by men as the practice is in traditional Islam. However, it is important to state that several factors including political, religious, social, and psychological, helped the introduction, growth and development of Islam in Osogbo. One factor that is germane to this study was the formation of some socio-religious Muslim societies and associations among which were the Egbe Bínúkonú[3] and Egbe Alásàláátù.

The Egbe Alasalaatu, the first Muslim women group perhaps, was established in the early 1870s. Membership of this society, with their sub-groups in various parts of the town, is opened to married women including widows and divorcees. The society is controlled by what members describe as the central executive committee which consists of officers which are elected among them. The head of the executive council is designated the Iya Suna. Her duties involve creating religious awareness among members, admonishing them on the proper attitude to religious services, leading in the ‘washing’ of female corpses as the Qur’anic injunction stipulates that corpses would be washed by their different sexes, and organising members for full participation in such ceremonies as naming, marriage and funeral. The Iya Adinni disseminates information among members. Another prominent leader is Olori Oniwaka, Waka[4] chorus raisers.

It is important to point out that as this society was gaining prominence, members carved out a sitting space for themselves in some sections (Ratibi) of mosques. This was frowned at by some of the Muslim leaders, notably Muqadam Ayeniromo, Alfa Kanpa of Idi-Omo and Alfa Latunde of Idi-Omo in Osogbo. According to them, “women were not even expected to come into the mosque, talk less of forming a society.”[5] Alhaja Salamotu Olobekan who just returned from Mecca on hajj, holy pilgrimage appealed to the men in the mosque that women ought to be accorded some significance in Islam since both men and women performed the hajj. Alfa Kanpa of Idi-Omo argued that although women were given the opportunity to perform the hajj, they would only do so in company of their husbands. However, another Muslim cleric, Imam Tijani of Obatedo granted the Alasalatu women the opportunity of free association with the Ummah, Muslim community, but appointed for them a man, Alfa Ajini of Idi-Omo as their instructor and lecturer.[6] From our discussions, we could see the attitudes of men to women in Islam, particularly among the Osogbo Muslim community. One is almost sure that the case would not be different in other parts of Yorubaland, as in other parts of Nigeria. It is important to state that women are not given any leadership recognition apart from the fact that their activities are more visible in the areas of socialites than religious as singing becomes prominent in their functions. This, on the other hand, represents the aesthetic and emotional attitude and expressions in African communities.

Our focus, Fadilullah Muslim Mission, presents a unique Islamic movement in Nigeria. Unlike other Muslim movements, the leader of this movement Sheidat Mujidat Adeoye lays claim to divine manifestation reminiscent of the Aladura brand of Christianity among the Yoruba. The therapeutic patterns are found to have some basis in religio-cultural practices within the Yoruba community. Sheidat Adeoye is making a lot of impact on the community and she has been found to create some relevance among the people. In other to properly situate our discussions of this woman and her movement within the Osogbo-Yoruba religio-cultural context, it will be pertinent to look at the phenomenon of religious experience as fundamental to founding the movement which she now leads with a powerful charisma. Her leadership of the movement has produced new religious expression to Islam in Osogbo.

A Brief History of Sheidat Mujidat Adeoye

Mujidat was born around 1970 into Mogbà Compound of Osogbo in Osun State. She had only an elementary education, but was not tutored in formal Qur’anic school. However, her parents were practising Muslims and so she could practice the most common rudimentary aspect of Muslim prayer, usually learnt through imitation.

Mujidat got married in 1980 to Abdul-Lateef Adéoyè, an indigene of Abéòkúta. Lateef himself was and is still an electrician by profession. It is important to note that Lateef is a practicing Muslim and also was an active member of the Sherif-Deen Movement.

Mujidat used to trade wholesale in bagged rice and beans. She used to go to the Northern states of Nigeria to purchase food stuff. She had her food store at Oluode market in Osogbo where her numerous customers came to buy food items from her. This market used to be one of the major markets where food items including daily food items were sold.

The Religious Experience of Sheidat Mujidat Adeoye

It was claimed that Mujidat, during one of the days when she was in her store with customers that she was seized by certain spirit which at first was interpreted by the audience as a manifestation of lunacy. Today, Mujidat has become a full time Muslim missioner, healer and leader of the movement that emerged from her spiritual encounter. How does religious experience become important in the life and operation of a religious founder and leader? How does this experience influence the movement that such founder establishes? How does religious experience give form and shape to religious practices?

William James’s The Variety of Religious Experience published in 1902 is still referred to as an important contribution to the study of religion. This publication is important since the study derives from James’s “refusal to treat physiology, psychology, and philosophy as separate disciplines,” (Bowker 1997: 489) which tends to analyse religion from the perspective of institutional or social expressions. Rather James allows reader to enter into the personal religious life of a religious person, by opening the reader to the whole range of experience, the experience which he describes as the ‘stream of consciousness’ (Bowker, ibid.).

An analysis of the dimensions of religious phenomena done by the historian of religion, Ninian Smart, identified mythic, ritual, ethic, social, doctrinal, experiential and symbols and images as crucial to the definition of religion (Smart, 2000). Observers and commentators on religious practices usually focus on religious expression which is the fruit and not on religious experience, the roots, basing their judgment on the popular biblical dictum, ‘by their fruits ye shall know them,’ (Matt. 7: 16), not by their roots. A historian of religion is interested both in the experience and the expression, and particularly focuses on experience as it gives meaning, forms and shapes to all the dimensions of religious phenomena, noting that most religious leaders and founders usually lay claims of their charisma to an encounter, that personal, intense, transitory and numinous religious experience, with the Divine. Necessarily, a religious leader’s acclaimed religious experience influences his or her congregation and audience, claiming as the eternal truth whatever he or she does with the movement which he or she is founding and/or leading. This is reminiscent of what happens in contemporary religious behaviour of the Pentecostals/Charismatics and Evangelicals in Nigeria.

Mujidat spiritual journey began with her spiritual encounter on the evening of the 23^rd of August 1997 at the age of 27 while in active trading operations in her store, selling food stuffs. She was a successful and promising trader. As she narrated her own experience, on August 23, 1997, she was suddenly caught with frenzy. She ‘ordered’ her co-wholesalers and the multitude of hawkers and customers who surrounded her to cover their heads with scarves. For minutes, she was screaming and shouting. Her behaviour was interpreted to mean a manifestation of some mental derangement. The audience began to fear for, and became apprehensive of, this manifestation. On the other hand, however, she started to recite “Lai lah, illah ‘llah,” “There is no god but Allah.”

In the state of spirit-possession, she started to prophesy. When she regained her consciousness, her colleagues told her what had happened to her and how she was prophesying. She herself was stupefied, more so, she was not so committed to serious Muslim practice though brought up in Muslim way. Moreover, Mujidat could not at all read the Holy Qur’ân. Secondly, there was no known antecedence of such a practice among the Muslim of Osogbo. Such Spirit seizure could only be found among a group of Christians called the Aládurà, “praying people,” notably of four main denominations, Cherubim and Seraphim Church, Christ Apostolic Church, Church of the Lord, Aladura, and the Celestial Church of Christ, all having a Nigerian-Yoruba origin.

However, Mujidat was led back to her residence at Ìsàlè Aro. She narrated some of her strange and new experience to Abdul-Lateef, her husband. The husband, now Alhaji Abdul-Lateef Adéoyè, was equally astonished since such an experience was strange to him as a staunch Muslim and a leader among the Sherif-Deen Muslim Movement. Notwithstanding, Mujidat engaged in a seven-day fasting and praying. At the expiration of the seven days, she began to prophesy to people. She was also encouraging and praying for those who came to her. According to her, she would not to demand charges or make request for money gifts for services to her clients. With all these, it was surprising that both Mujidat and Abdul-Lateef would not show much enthusiasm on this strange phenomenon as they almost discarded the experience. They insisted on continuing their normal ways of social and business life. This ‘reluctance’ was so reminiscent of the biblical figures such as Moses and Jeremiah, except that in this case, it was a woman who was involved.

But Mujidat began to realise some mysterious disappearances of the monies she made from her sales and some good portions of the food items she was supposed to be selling. Fear began to grip her! Also, contrary to her business patronage before the spiritual experience, she began to wait hopelessly in her shop. She unusually would not sell her food stuff no matter how long she stayed in her store; to the extent that most times she would return home in anger and frustration. Furthermore, each time she travelled to buy goods from the North, she would lose money and foodstuff. All this was running her business into deficit. On the other hand, she used to have unsolicited clients who came to her to request for her prayers, claiming to be led by some mysterious and strange influences.

Two issues started to bother her mind. The first is economic. Would this mean that she would leave her trading activities? If she did and accepted this call, what would she be living on? The second is the question of the practice of the praying and prophesying. How would she begin to administer the prayers on the clients, this, being a new kind of experience to her? She claimed not to have seen a Muslim practice such before the time neither had she received any specific divine instruction on the step-by-step ‘how’.

However, she reluctantly started performing this divine task and her clients would testify to the truth in her prophetic revelation and the efficacy of her prayers. Also, while staying at home performing the divine mission, her trading colleagues would have sold her food items for her, and would bring the money to her at home. With this realization, she decided to yield to the divine call.

Thus, it became so clear to her and her husband, that she, as well as her husband, would not be able to resist this divine assignment. Furthermore, and sequel to this, clients began to multiply. The commendations and positive comments, and reactions by clients and audiences of the successful operation of Mujidat’s praying and prophesies led to the emergence of a new congregation! There was the need to give an identification mark, a name, to the group. Searching from the Holy Qur’an for a functional name of Mujidat’s strange experience of a woman in Islam, she and her husband adapted a name from a story that reflected a sign which was to convince a people of the olden time that Allah could work and act as he willed in his world and in the lives of human beings. This was taken from the sixth Surat of the Holy Qur’ân titled An’am or The Cattle.

The surat speaks generally about some unbelieving generations which would mock all the works of Allah and would disdain and reject all the signs that Allah would give them to them which could make them attest to his greatness and creations. These generations are described as deaf and dumb; in the midst of profound darkness. However, Allah continues to send his messengers with signs, so that the generations would not hold him responsible for any troubles that would soon befall them. Furthermore, that the generations would reserve no right to dictate to him how he would do his work in his universe.

Thus, the surat, according to Mujidat and Abdul-Lateef, explains the inexplicable nature of Allah’s work as evident in the emergence of the movement founded and led by a woman who is bestowed with the gift of working miracles. Secondly, the Surat exposes the human usual negative and disdainful attitude to the works of God as manifested in new religious experiences especially within a patrifocal community. And thirdly, the verses and the story demonstrate the unrestricted working of Allah. The experience of Mujidat should therefore be seen as Àmì Olórun,[7] the sign from Allah, which evinces in the miraculous works and efficacious prayers of Alhaja Sheidat[8] Mujidat Adéoyè and validates her spiritual experience. The sign then becomes a testimony to the divine appearance of the Holy One which is strange and new in Islam. The movement was then called Fadilullah, a contraction of the Qur’anic expression Ash-ah-min-Fadil-ul-llah, Ash-ah-dul-Fadil-ul-rubi-l meaning ‘this is the sign from God.’

Sheidat Mujidat Adeoye and Fadilullah Muslim Mission[9]

Alhaja Sheidat Mujidat heads and directs the .Fadilullah Muslim Mission. Mujidat dresses in white gown with flowing scarf signifying the purity of God and her desire for simplicity. Her decision to choose white as her uniform was, according to her, to place on herself some restrictions against worldly fashion as she claimed that she used to be a lady of fashion and she loved dressing in various kinds of apparel and jewellery. But Allah, she claimed, had prescribed for her white apparel, instructing her to jettison all worldly fashions.

Fadilullah Mission, as a new movement and new expression of Islam in Òsogbo community, is a praying mission. It is committed to problem-solving, not only for Muslims but also for people of different religious traditions. Two important points are noted on the newness of this Muslim expression. First, as mentioned earlier, Fadilullah Mission was founded by a Muslim woman. Second, it was founded as a distinct prayer movement within Islam. These two, combined, present a somewhat strange expression of Islamic faith. It is remarkable to note that what started at Ìsàlè Aro in a small room has grown into a large congregation such that they now have a fairly big mosque[10] and a personal house on the plot which Alhaja and Alhaji Adeoye had bought to build their personal house before the divine call. This site is at Òkè Ayépé area of Òsogbo.

The impact of this movement is so much felt that the street leading to the place has taken the name of the movement, Fadillulah Street. This is a common practice among the Yoruba when a particular place takes on a name that is synonymous with a certain occurrence, a particular use, or an ascribed prominence. The movement has a mosque which could accommodate about two thousand people with tents constructed around it. The movement has for its annual use about eight acres of land. During this annual retreat and prayers, the place is well lit with temporary sheds built for the ummah’s use.

One of our principal informants, Alhaji Araokanmi,[11] a non-member who has his own house along the Street, made astonishing remarks on the popularity and level of patronage of this movement by indigenes and non-indigenes of Osogbo who troop in leap and bound daily to Alhaja Sheidat Mujidat Adeoye for prayers. Alhaja Adeoye has become a point of attraction to her members, clients, and the yawning population who are faced with diverse existential, physical and metaphysical problems ranging from barrenness, misfortunes, ill-luck, lunacy, and several others.

The Practice of Praying and Divine Healing

Prayer is central to the life and ministry of Sheidat Adeoye. It is remarkable that Sheidat Adeoye joined her band in a seven-day prolonged prayer and fasting which they had two weeks after she delivered her baby, and she was involved with the members for the whole period. She engages herself in constant prolonged personal and private prayers and fasting such as seven-day, twenty-one-day, and forty-one-day. The forty-one-day prayer is done once in a year. This starts from July and runs through the celebration of the founding of the movement which is August 23^rd. She organises a regular fortnight prayer meetings for members. She also has a band of assistants who attend to clients on her behalf on not-too-difficult cases. They are called ‘afàdúràjagun’, prayer-band. All their activities are done in and around her mosque premises.

The Mission has a stream very close to the mosque which is used for clients who receive prescriptions for ritual bath. Alhaji Adéoyè however added that a client might decide to go to her or his own stream or river of choice for prescribed ritual bath. Alhaja Adeoye reiterated the fact that the source of her power were only prayers and fasting and that no such practices as the magical elements alleged to being used by African traditional healers, Muslim alfaa and some brands of ‘spiritualist’Christian healers. These magical elements include ‘àfòse’ (speak-and-cause-to-be), ‘olúgbohùn’ ‘hàùntúrú’, ‘tírà’[12].

People come to Alhaja Adeoye both from within and outside Osogbo town, with various kinds of problems such as barrenness, blindness, deafness and dumbness, and protracted illnesses. In some of our visits to the places, it was noted that though both male and female constituted the clients, females were more in number and they included people from all religious denominations. The fact that female clients are usually more in number than male clients may be explained from the fact that problems associated with child-bearing and women related issues such as protracted waiting for suitors, prolonged pregnancy and barrenness, have negative and terrible implications mostly on women hence women’s patronage. The Yoruba, and Africans generally hold as having bad destiny any lady or woman whose marital or procreation life is faced with unresolved physical, metaphysical and spiritual crises. Thus, a lady or woman continues to patronize places where she hopes or which are suggested for solution to her problems. Whenever a place is found to provide solutions to such problems, the beneficiaries, as a matter of ‘divine duty’, continue to advertise, and spread the news.

Sheidat Mujidat attends to clients every day of the week except on Friday which she chooses for her rest and for the Jumat service. The hours are from 9.00 o’clock in the morning till any time when all the clients would have been attended to. She organizes prayers for different categories of people.

Pregnant women hold their prayer meetings on Tuesdays. Congregational prayers for members and visitors hold every Thursday from 3.00 to 6.00 in the afternoon and every Sunday from 11.00 o’clock in the morning to 3.00 o’clock in the afternoon. The Sunday prayer is called Àdúrà Ìségun. There is a fortnight prayer meeting from Friday evening through Saturday morning. There is a seven-day once-in-a-year prayer which holds between May 10 and May 17. It is done with prayer and fasting through morning and evening. It is however noteworthy, as Alhaja Adeoye pointed out that they do not engage in the practice of giving testimonies. Her own interpretation of ‘testimony-giving’ is that it is done to advertise or entice people. According to her, she does not believe in such practice. Rather, any client or member who is a beneficiary of her praying activities would not need to be told before he or she broadcast to the numerous people who need such help.

The prayer services are extemporaneous, interspersed with hilarious choruses. These choruses express the strong belief in the efficacy of prayers and its potency to change an ‘otherwise unchangeable’ condition sealed in destiny. That is, when one’s destiny is unfavourable, prayer can always be used to change it. One belief among the Africans, particularly, the Yoruba is that, destiny is a determinant factor of human’s life existence and thus, one’s success or failure in life is wrapped up in destiny which had been chosen out of many, or picked up from Olodumare, or knelt down to receive while coming from heaven into the world (Abimbola 1976: 113; Idowu 1996: 180; Ogungbile 2001: 206-207). Alhaja Adeoye has a common chorus, among others, which intensifies her deep-seated belief in the potency of prayer over destiny:

Alhaja Sheidat Mujidat Adeoye prescribes and uses olive oil, water, sponges and toilet soap for therapeutic purposes. She claims to offer only prayers on these items which the clients need to use as prescribed. Clients usually bring kegs or other containers inside which water is fetched. Prescriptions are usually given extemporaneously and spontaneously by Alhaja Adeoye while or during prayer sessions. Items are also claimed to be used as considered relevant to the client’s problems since it is claimed that there is an essential and symbolic connection between the items prescribed and the client’s problem. For example, if a revelation is made that somebody’s problem has been caused, having swallowed a mysterious object in the dream, prayer is offered into some water, and the person is told to drink it. Moreover, if somebody has been claimed to have chosen a bad destiny, ritual bath is usually recommended. The person is told to bring up to seven sponges and soap which are prayed upon. She or he is instructed to go to the river to wash her or his head for a specific number of times, usually seven times or the multiples of seven or three. Furthermore, a person may be told to rub the ailing part of her of his or her body with consecrated olive oil. Members are restricted from going to traditionalists to seek any other help.

We watched the processes of operation of the prayers of regular daily 9.00 o’clock morning ‘clinic’. Clients usually queued up, sitting on benches which were arranged outside the mosque. Each client entered one after the other to explain his/her reason for patronage to Sheidat Mujidat. Sheidat Mujidat prayed extemporaneously. She then explained any revelations which she might have received during her prayer. She prescribed appropriate remedies which clients would go to perform. Sheidat Mujidat claims that she does not charge any fee for prayers offered; but that she accepts thanksgiving, gifts and freewill offerings from clients.

Fadilullah in its Religio-Cultural Context and Expression

It is important to mention that Fadilullah Muslim Mission asserts its claim to Islam by following certain practices in the mosque. For instance and in keeping to tradition, Alhaja Sheidat Adeoye has an Imam who conducts the Friday Jumat service in her mosque. The founder and leader, Sheidat Mujidat Adeoye, was born into a Muslim family and had been a practising Muslim, though not too deep as was common among most of her contemporaries of the same social status in Osogbo community. Her husband also, Alhaji Abdul-Lateef Adeoye, had been an active member of a popular Muslim society in Osogbo, Sherif-Deen Muslim society.

The commitment of Alhaja and Alhaji Adeoye to Islam really manifested when Mujidat, having received some pressures with monetary and material enticement from some Christian groups who, according to them, tried to persuade Mujidat into their fold, with the claim that such spiritual experience as she had was meant to be found and used in their fold. Moreover, Mujidat was discouraged and persecuted by some Muslim bigwigs and some Islamic movements; but she bluntly refused and declined the gift of her enticers, claiming that she still remained a Muslim! Furthermore, Mujidat and her husband, being fully convinced of the authenticity of their mission, they searched and found their root in the Holy Qur’an which made them to adopt a descriptive and functional name for their movement.

However, the spiritual climate from which the Fadilullah Mission emerged had strong Indigenous traditional religious and Christian presence. In Osogbo, there is a huge presence of devotees of Osun, Ifa, Obataala, Sango and Egungun which practices were dominant both at the institutional and casual levels. The festivals of these deities, particularly of Osun which represent the ‘idol of the tribe’, a kind of hegemonic festival or civil faith of the people, are intense and imposing, on the royal throne as well as on the populace. There is the constant daily, weekly and annual patronage of the shrines where they collect sacred water from the Iya Osun, Osun chief priestess and Awowo Osun Busanyin, the chief priest of Osun Busanyin (Ogungbile 2003a).

Christian presence, particularly of the Christ Apostolic Church (Ile Agbara Adura) and other notable denominations, was also to be felt. For instance, the popular Christ Apostolic Church, Ile Agbara Adura situated at the Agricultural Settlement, Oke Osun in Osogbo offers the people some respite on the matter healing through the Deputy General Evangelist E. O. Babalola. It is famous for heavy patronage which is characterized by constant praying and fasting activities. People of several mystical, metaphysical, psychological and physical and diverse spiritual problems are brought to receive their healing. The intensive use of water for therapeutic purposes is noteworthy in this church. There are four big halls at the Oke Osun site while there is another big edifice which serve as a spiritual home for numerous clients at the Ogo Oluwa Station Road in Osogbo (Ogungbile 2003b).

The importance of the two categories of religious traditions mentioned above is to explain the religious atmosphere and possible interactions which could lead to positive response of the public, and misunderstanding or misinterpretation by any religiously biased adherents to the practices of the Fadilullah Muslim Mission. Some cases of these interactions can be identified here. One is the concept of religious experience, ecstasy which is usually and constantly demonstrated by women in the Christ Apostolic Church and other Aladura Churches as well as among the devotees of Osun and other deities. The mode of service, praying activities including praying assistant, afadurajagun, number of days of praying and fasting, choice of the days and hours are notable paradigms of the Aladura movement. The use of some sacred objects, especially holy water,[13] olive oil, consecrated sponges and soaps, and ritual bath in streams expressed a very strong connection both with the Aladura brand of Christianity and devotees of Osun and other prominent deities in Osogbo.

Conclusion

In this paper, we have identified the significance of religious experience as very important, and in fact crucial to the emergence of women in the new expression of Islam in Nigeria, using the Alhaja Sheidat Mujidat Adeoye, the founder of the Fadilullah Muslim Mission of Nigeria as a case study. We have noted that religious experience is capable of altering the stereotypes in religious beliefs and practices and that authenticity could always be found to situate any movement if prejudices and biases are not allowed to becloud our vision. Also, that culture is very important in responding to religious experience and expression. That religion, if given its rightful position, can play positive and constructive roles in proffering solutions to spiritual, metaphysical and psychological problems. It is noted that spiritual experience is potent in religious leadership and that women are always relevant if stereotypes in our religious attitudes are objectively stripped off our mentality. This paper suggests that academic study of religion should engage more in focusing on case studies relating to religious experience and women spirituality in Islam. This, it is hoped, will reveal to us the capability of women in divine revelation and their leadership potential in religious spheres. Not only this, such studies will enlighten and enliven other disciplines on the role and status of Muslim women in politics, in economy, and other social life.

References

1. “This was a case of a woman having limited or unlimited number of ‘husbands’ and not a man having several wives. In the case of limited polyandry, when a woman gave birth to a child, she summoned her male sexual partners (who were less than ten), and in front of them declared that particular one was father of the child; and the man was not allowed to deny this. The unlimited polyandry seems hardly to have differed from prostitution, but there may have been restraints.” (Watt 1991; 162)

2. Aisha bint Abi Bakr, born 614 CE was married to Prophet Muhammad after Khadija died. Muhammad admitted that Aisha was her favourite. It was claimed that revelation often came to him while he was in her company. She joined a growing opposition party against Uthman, the third Caliph. After Uthman’s assassination, she, together with Talha and al-Zubayr, took control of Basra and in Dec. 656 fought against Ali b. Abi Talib, the successor of Uthman. She was quoted as being the source for many hadith, especially those concerning Muhammad’s personal life. (See Bowker 1997: 35).

7. Ash-ah-min-Fadil-ul-llah, Ash-ah-dul-Fadil-ul-rubi-l “this is the sign from God.” This expression comes from the sign God showed to the generation of Prophet Sahliu. The generation of Sahliu requested him to show them a sign that Allah had truly sent him a message to them. Allah descended cattle to the Prophet to show to the people. The people asked him what this strange appearance was. He then told them that it was a sign from Allah. But the people still rejected. But they began to exercise the fear that this cow would not allow them to have sufficient water to drink since it was such a big cow which would consume all the water that is meant for them. They rejected this sign. Allah then told them that if they rejected it, they would be punished. Q. 6:125.

9. Personal Interviews with Alhaja Sheidat Mujidat Adéoyè, 32 years, founder of the Fadilullah Muslim Mission and Alhaji Abdul-Lateef Adéoyè, 47 years, husband of Sheidat Mujidat Adéoyè, Fadilullah Street, Òkè Ayépé, Òsogbo, June 2002.

12. Àfòse and Olúgbohùn are magical voices of imprecations which are used to cause things to happen. They are commonly used by traditional medicine men while hàùntúrú and tírà, are commonly found among Muslim herbal men. It is claimed that some groups of Aladúrà movement use Olúgbohùn. For ‘hàùntúrú’, it is the practice of inscribing on slate ink (usually black element) some Arabic letters or statements, it is washed with water or any liquid and drunk by the client to effect a curse, most probably on one’s enemies while ‘tírà’ contains Arabic causative inscriptions wrapped and tied with cloth strings. Such is kept as a protection against any unforeseen incidence or accident.

13. Although late Alhaji Harun Ajisebiyawo, the founder of the Jamat-ul-Musli-inah, a popular Osogbo Muslim missioner, was famous for the use of water. It was not as organized and instituted as that of Alhaja Mujidat Adeoye.

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